Behind the scenes at Formula E racing in Malaysia (pictures)

Jerome d'Ambrosio from Dragon Racing waiting for his turn in the pits after the qualifying rounds. He would go on to finish fifth.

Formula 1 veteran Nick Heidfeld from the Venturi team making his rounds at the qualifiers.

Nicolas Prost, son of four-time Formula 1 world champion Alain Prost, finished first in the qualifiers, taking pole position for the e.dams team. He would finish fourth in the race.

Amlin's race cars come in an eye-catching electric blue. This car here is driven by one of the two female drivers of Formula E, Katherine Legge.

The race begins!

The gull-wing BMW i8 is used as a safety car. Below the right tire is the charging pad for Qualcomm's Halo wireless charging system. It's not in use in this picture since the car is not in the right charging position.

The Qualcomm Halo wireless charging system requires a car's receiver pad to be parked directly over it.

Formula E cars are still charged the old way and take about 50 minutes to get from empty to full.

The 200kg lithium-ion battery is located behind the driver's seat. You can see the gearbox behind.

The McLaren electric motor is pretty small but powerful, pushing the 900kg cars to 140mph.

The Spark-Renault SRT_01 E unit is modular, so any damage suffered during the qualifiers can be quickly repaired.

Also at the Putrajaya track was the $980,000 (£626,000, AU$1.1 million) Rimac Concept One, a high-performance two-seater electric sports car.

The carbon fiber car has a 500km range, and a top speed of 305kph (190mph).